talks about the latest releases in the music world

Welcome to edition 800 of Chart Chat, the music review site which has been running for over fifteen years. You can find us on Twitter as @ChartChatUK so feel free to follow us and pass comment on the weeks new releases yourselves. As always we will take a look at the current top forty followed by some reviews of the weeks new releases. There is a new edition published weekly so if you are new here then I hope you will choose to revisit.

Chart Review

There were four new entries, seven climbers, fifteen songs going down and four non movers on this weeks chart. There was no change at the top as Sam Smith & John Legend held firm with ‘Lay Me Down’ while Years & Years were also non movers at no.2 with ‘King’.

Kanye West, Rihanna & Paul McCartney went back up two to no.3 with ‘FourFiveSeconds’ and James Bay achieved his highest chart position to date as ‘Hold Back The River’ climbed six to no.4. Ellie Goulding fell one to no.5 with ‘Love Me Like You Do’ and Hozier got a non mover at no.6 with ‘Take Me To Church’. Flo Rida featuring Sage The Gemini fell four to no.7 with ‘G.D.F.R.’ and Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars went down one to no.8 with ‘Uptown Funk’. The Weeknd fell two to no.9 with ‘Earned It’ and the top ten was concluded by Maroon 5 who went up to no.10 with ‘Sugar’.

A further new entry and climber were to be found in what remained of the top twenty. Tough Love gota new entry at no.11 with ‘So Freakin Tight’ while Marlon Roudette went back up one to no.12 with ‘When The Beat Drops Out’.

There were three new entries and six climbers in the lower half of the chart. Taylor Swift climbed one to no.21 with ‘Space’ and Olly Murs featuring Demi Lovato went back up one to no.24 with ‘Up’. Philip George climbed one to no.25 with ‘Wish You Were Mine’ while Ed Sheeran & Rudimental went up eleven to no.26 with ‘Bloodstream’. Pitbull & Ne-Yo went straight in at no.28 with ‘Time Of Our Lives’ and Sam Smith climbed three to no.29 with ‘Like I Can’. Sam Smith went back up two to no.31 with ‘Stay With Me’ and Kygo featuring Conrad got a new entry at no.37 with ‘Firestone’. The final new entry came at no.38 and went to MNEK with ‘The Rhythm’.

New Releases

Cheryl – ‘Only Human’

Cheryl has already enjoyed an impressive solo career to date with her five no.1 hits being the highest tally by any UK female artist. Her popularity has seen no signs of fading and although her current album ‘Only Human’ was her lowest peaking release to date (#7), it has yielded two no.1 hits in the shape of ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ and ‘I Don’t Care’. Now comes the release of the title track as the third single and it comes released as a single track download and digital bundle containing three new mixes; the Club Mix, the Super Stylers Remix and the iLL BLU Remix. A video to the track premiered at the start of February and it was viewed over half a million times during its first month of upload. This has certainly received its fair share of publicity and airplay but I can’t see it becoming her sixth chart topper next Sunday afternoon.

Chic featuring Nile Rodgers – ‘I’ll Be There’

It’s now been over twenty seven years since the American disco band Chic reached the top twenty with ‘Jack Le Freak’ though their glory days came in the late 1970’s when they notched up five consecutive top ten hits. They have had a revival in recent years due to increased interest in Nile Rodgers after he worked with Daft Punk and the coverage given to the bands headlining set at Glastonbury back in 2013. They are now due to release ‘It’s About Time’ which will become their first album in over two decades and from that comes the lead single ‘I’ll Be There’. An instrumental version was uploaded to Nile Rodgers YouTube channel on 2nd March and it received 25k plays during its first seven days. This has all the hallmarks of a Chic classic and if it can pick up the right amount of airplay this could well secure them a chart return.

Destructo featuring Problem – ‘Dare You 2 Move’

American DJ, music executive and promoter Destructo has teamed up with the American rapper Problem for this weeks release of his brand new single ‘Dare You 2 Move’. The track has been hanging around since the end of October last year, and the promotional video has been viewed over 450k times since then. Fans who visit his Soundcloud page can pick listen to the Jack Beats Remix, the Shiba San Remix, the Bootlegger Mashup and Djemba Djemba Remix. He has also worked on remixes by other artists, most notably ‘Soothe My Soul’ by Depeche Mode. He is making a series of appearances in the US and Canada over the Summer months but is confirmed to appear at Creamfields at the end of August. He has yet to achieve success in the UK but with a bit of mainstream airplay that could change with this release.

Dotan – ‘Home’

Next up this week is the Dutch singer / songwriter Dotan who releases his new single ‘Home’ this week. The track features on his latest studio album ‘7 Layers’ which has already made no.2 in the Netherlands but gets its UK release this week. It has topped the charts in Belgium and the Netherlands, so now it will be interesting to see how well it can perform in the UK. He made an appearance at The Stillery in London last week but most of his remaining appearances in 2014 are back in the Netherlands. The promotional video was first made available back in May of this year and has notched up over 5.2m views since then thanks to its success around Europe. How successful ‘Home’ can be will depend on whether this can pick up any real airplay in the coming days but if it can then there is no reason why it should not become a hit in the UK too.

Jess Glynne – ‘Hold My Hand’

It’s been quite a twelve months for Jess Glynne who provided vocals on no.1 hits by Route 94 and Clean Bandit while also finding time to notch up two top ten hits of her own. Now she is aiming for chart glory again with her new single ‘Hold My Hand’ which is released this week. It was produced by Clean Bandit’s Jack Patterson and will feature on her debut album which is currently pencilled in for a May release. The promotional video to the track was uploaded on the 23rd February and managed to pick up over 650k views during its first two weeks. She has just completed a short tour of the UK but has festival appearances confirmed over the Summer at Parklife, T In The Park and Weston Park. It seems she can do very little wrong right now and so I fully expect this to land somewhere inside the top ten next weekend.

Jonas Rathsman – ‘Wolfbane’

It was back in 2013 that Jonas was declared by the Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong to be a star of the future, and he has started to achieve that promise although perhaps more as a producer than an artist. He received considerable critical acclaim for his remix of Sam Smith’s ‘Like I Can’ which was premiered on the Annie Mac radio show before being selected by Pete Tong as his Essential New Tune. This week sees him aiming for the chart as an artist in his own right with the track ‘Wolfsbane’. It’s a hypnotic track which lasts over seven minutes in its extended form and it has been creating plenty of attention – the audio upload was being played over 30k times per day alone. This could well find itself among the list of dance tracks which have crossed over onto the mainstream but we will only know for certain next Sunday afternoon.

Kygo featuring Parson James – ‘Stole The Show’

Norwegian DJ and producer Kygo is next up and he has teamed up with Parson James for his new single ‘Stole The Show’. He is known for his remix of Ed Sheeran’s ‘I See Fire’ track although his own song ‘Firestone’ topped the charts in his native Norway and has started to edge up the UK charts, becoming a new entry at no.37 this week. Parson James describes his music as conflicted pop gospel and his vocals certainly add a new slant to this track. Kygo currently only has one confirmed UK appearance this year which is at Creamfields in August. He is also set to appear on the chart soon with his remix of Seinabo Sey’s track ‘Younger’ which is due for release on 10th May. It has already topped the charts in Norway and is set to be a hit across Europe during this Summer. This could well become a big hit for him next weekend, and his previous single ‘Firestone’ could climb further.

KSI featuring P Money – ‘Lamborghini’

KSI is the rapper name of internet phenomenon KSIOlajideBT and he has enlisted the help of English Grime MC P Money for his brand new single ‘Lamborghini’ which is released this week. He originally gained popularity for his thoughts on the game FIFA 11, but has also provided review and comment on various other popular games including Call Of Duty. He has over 1.8m Likes on his Facebook page and this new single release is bound to be the subject of considerable interest. Although he has yet to chart, he has guested on tracks by Sway, Randolph and Joe Weller. This track has received considerable pre-orders, and has been seen inside the top 100 of some retailers charts. I have to say that I think it is a decent song, and is not just a cash in on his internet popularity. I expect this to secure him a debut top forty hit next weekend.

Sigma featuring Labrinth – ‘Higher’

British drum & bass duo Sigma have seen both of their last two singles go to the top of the charts and now they are aiming for three in a row with their new track ‘Higher’. To help them do that they have teamed up with Labrinth who also has an impressive chart career to his name with one number one hit and five further top ten appearances in his discography. ‘Higher’ is released as a single track download and a digital bundle which includes six new mixes; the Sigma VIP Remix, the GRADES Remix, the Grant Nelson Remix, the Kideko Remix, the Jay Montero Club Mix and the Lucas Maverick Remix. The official video was uploaded to YouTube back at the start of February and it has picked up over 400k views since then. That’s impressive but perhaps not quite enough to suggest that a further chart topper is on the cards next weekend.

Normally at this point in the column I would predict next weeks no.1, and list some of the new releases expected to come under review in the next edition. However I have now decided to move from a weekly singles review site, to one which concentrates more on albums and live shows. Streaming, downloads of songs already available on albums and re-entries of old tracks all serve to diminsh the importance of what used to be “new release Monday”. I am finding it harder to find eight or nine tracks which I can comment on enthusiastically and so will be switching my focus to reviewing albums by some of my favourite artists. I have enjoyed writing this column over the last 800 editions, but with people now having easy access to YouTube, Spotify and 90 second clips on iTunes it is easy for the reader to find out for themselves what a song sounds like rather than reading reviews such as mine. So it’s not really a case of goodbye, but more a change of format. I hope to see you passing by this site again soon.